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DAVEX®: Design from the outset

New steel design facade beams are the first product to be launched in the New Year by ThyssenKrupp Davex GmbH, a company formed in 2002. Manufactured using the firm`s DAVEX® technology, these beams feature perforated webs and right-angled, sharp edges which set them apart from conventional hot-rolled steel profiles. DAVEX® facade beams have a filigree, transparent appearance which opens up new possibilities for architectural designs with steel. They are particularly suitable for use in visible steel structures with a representative function. The new beams are expected to be approved for building use at the beginning of 2004.

DAVEX® facade beams owe their elegant looks to a new, patented roll joining process. A special tool is used to roll a groove into the flange material. In parallel with this, the edges of the web material are contoured and inserted in the flange groove. Subsequently a locking groove is rolled into the flanges on either side of the web, causing material to flow into the contours on the web edges. The result is a firm friction/positive joint without the need for welding.

The advantages of DAVEX® facade beams, whose webs are considerably thinner in relation to the flange than on rolled profiles, are demonstrated in the glass curtain wall on the 3L office building in Menden, Germany. The building`s planners and designers wanted a facade with maximum transparency and a supporting structure which would not spoil the effect. DAVEX® profiles with perforated webs proved the ideal solution. In addition, ThyssenKrupp Davex has supplied some 50 metric tons of facade profiles for the production shop extension at ThyssenKrupp Tailored Blanks in Duisburg-Hüttenheim.

The facade beams are now available in seven different variants: Three perforated-web I-beams in widths of 60 millimeters and heights of 120, 180 and 200 millimeters, three similar I-beams with non-perforated web, and a 60 millimeter wide T-beam with a height of 100 millimeters which can be used to build post and beam structures. In addition, so-called standard beams with perforated webs in six different designs will be available from March 2004. The sizes of these I-beams will be based on those of common hot-rolled beams. This will allow architects and planners to use hot rolled beams for hidden support structures and DAVEX® beams of the same thickness in areas calling for an attractive appearance. Both the DAVEX® facade beams and the standard beams are made from the structural steel S 235 JR G2.

DAVEX® profiles are manufactured directly from coil material on a recently completed production line in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, the only one of its kind in the world. Once approval for building use has been granted, the facility will turn out further beam variants, such as I-beams and T-beams with different flange widths and asymmetrical flanges. In the future, DAVEX® technology will also fulfill its potential in the production of hybrid profiles with combinations of different materials such as steel, aluminum and plastic.